What do you miss on a regular basis?

After 7 months and 80 lbs. Loss

I don't miss chocolates or ice creme, candy or pastries any where near as much as I thought I would.

I find myself missing pasta, cheese and breads a lot more than the junk foods.

Is there stuff that you yearn for ?
But just abstain

Nope. Everything in moderation. Provided you don't have a medical condition with specific strict dietary requirements and are just doing it to lose weight, then stuff like chocolate, ice cream, pastries etc. aren't "bad", as long as you aren't eating large quantities on a regular basis. Complete denial leads to cravings, unhappiness, temptation, and lack of adherence or complete abandonment of your diet. There's a reason why "cheat days"/"cheat meals" are a thing, even for top level athletes.

While I wasn't "obese", I was carrying around unnecessary weight. I don't have a scale, but I've lost an inch or two in my waist over the past 3-4 months. I still eat pretty much what I want, but in smaller portions and lesser frequencies for the more unhealthy stuff. (Although I already had been abstaining from soda and fast food for the last decade plus, for other reasons.)

The two biggest things that have helped me slim down more lately were:

A) Cutting down from 1-2 beers per evening to 1-2 beers per week or every other week. Beer is empty calories, and alcohol is tough on your body and your metabolism.

and

B) Intermittent fasting. I eat dinner around 6:00-7:00 pm, then don't eat again until around Noon the following day. Any "snack" occurs between lunch and dinner only. This results in 17-18 hours with no food, every day. Black coffee, plain tea, and water are fine during the 18 hour fast between dinner and lunch, so I have my usual couple cups of coffee in the morning, but totally skip breakfast. And the cool part is that I don't find myself getting hungry until about 11:45 or so.

I'm doing low carb in an attempt to drop ~50lbs or so. It's worked in the past for me, my problem is I tend to go off the reservation for a bit and gain it back.

I usually miss sugar and bread. I give myself a cheat day every month to give myself something to work towards and allow some relief to keep me going.

Since going low carb - it's the pasta, pizza, potatoes, chips and bread mostly missed.
Never had a big sweet (sugar) problem so that has not posed a problem.
Now trying to slowly do a bulk with gradually adding some carbs but none of the above.
It's hard to keep the calories up especially protein.

wow. you guys get amazing results. i must be cheating too much. i've been doing the fasting approach and i've lost fat but i haven't really lost any weight.

i am slimmer and my pants fit easier. but my weight isn't changing. i'd like to lose about 15-20lbs. i don't know how you guys are dropping 50-80 lbs.

i tend to crave salty snacks like potato chips or rice crackers. and as i walk more with the improved weather, i'm waking up very hungry. it's hard to get to noon w/o eating sometimes.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
wow. you guys get amazing results. i must be cheating too much. i've been doing the fasting approach and i've lost fat but i haven't really lost any weight.

i am slimmer and my pants fit easier. but my weight isn't changing. i'd like to lose about 15-20lbs. i don't know how you guys are dropping 50-80 lbs.

i tend to crave salty snacks like potato chips or rice crackers. and as i walk more with the improved weather, i'm waking up very hungry. it's hard to get to noon w/o eating sometimes.

Are you working out as well? You could be losing fat and gaining muscle mass, which is a good thing.

At my heaviest, I was 235 lbs. I’ve lost 35 lbs. with intermittent fasting without changing my eating habits that much. I did add more hearty salads as a meal to my routine, but really don’t “watch what I eat” or deprive myself. Like smschulz, I really don’t crave sweets, so eating just slightly healthier is easier. I go 20-24 hours between meals a lot of days, so eat only that one meal. Good luck!!

"i don't know how you guys are dropping 50-80 lbs."

I weigh every dam thing, document all of it,
Add , subtract, multiply and divide calories .
And
Drink a gallon of water
every day.

Eating a double bacon cheeseburger without the bun,cheese or bacon is close to torture.



I have had quantity issues for 25 years and yes I am paying the price for the next 25

I'm 225ish, I want to get back to 180ish and stay there. Guess I need to get back to intermittent fasting myself...

I've been low carbing it for a couple months and am down from 210ish to 190ish (still drinking some beer) and I miss potatoes the most. Arnold keto bread/buns as well as low carb tortillas/wraps keep my bread cravings under control. After giving up sweets and most sugar related items, I actually don't miss them at all.

It’s all calorie in, calorie out for me. As long as I get in sufficient protein (around bodyweight in grams) daily and keep my calories under my estimated daily expenditure, I lose body fat. I can easily eat cookies, pizza, chocolates or whatever. Works like a charm and I never deprive myself.

Everything in moderation is right. I miss pasta, rice and potatoes most, but after an initial period, started eating them on a limited basis, as in, proper serving size. A serving of pasta should be no more than 2 oz dry. And, yes, Orowheat / Arnold keto bread is a staple here.

I'm down 20 lb (206 - 183) and 2 inches in waist (35/6 - 33/4) in 6 months. It's a steady race, not a sprint.

Nice work bendable!

Edit to add: The California Pizza Kitchen frozen cauliflower crust artisanal cheese pizzas are awesome if you add onion and pepperoni. You can't eat it every day, but a couple slices a week or so is a treat.

Thanks ,
I wish I would have made a YouTube video of my doctor when he saw the weigh in stats.

I've never seen a giddy 77 y.o. doctor before

quote:

Originally posted by crue-dell:
It’s all calorie in, calorie out for me.

That's kind of accurate in that, to lose fat, calories in must be less than calories out, and, if your calories in exceed your calories out you will gain fat.

But not all calories are equal. Some supply needed nutrition, others are just empty calories. So, if you're working to lose weight while remaining well-nourished, it would behoove you to watch your macros.

This sums it up well:

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I weigh every dam thing, document all of it,
Add , subtract, multiply and divide calories .

Way too much freakin' work, in my view. If I'm looking to lose fat I just adjust my intake down until the fat starts going away.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
And
Drink a gallon of water
every day.

I drink about 3L/day.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
Eating a double bacon cheeseburger without the bun,cheese or bacon is close to torture.

If you're having to do that to lose fat, you're doing it wrong.

The week of my birthday I ate way too much homemade lasagna on my birthday and had a beer with it. Desert was two big homemade chocolate/mocha cupcakes. The next morning I had one of those Costco pastries with coffee and another large serving of lasagna for lunch. The following weekend I ate a Nanaimo bar with coffee, after dinner, one night and the next night finished-off about 1/3 of a Toblerone bar with coffee.

I gained zero pounds that week.

How did I do that? The rest of the week I 16:8 interval fasted each day, kept lunch and dinner portions sane, and snacked very, very little. What snacking there was was limited to a handful of nuts.

"But not all calories are equal. Some supply needed nutrition, others are just empty calories. So, if you're working to lose weight while remaining well-nourished, it would behoove you to watch your macros."

I keep it super simple. The only macro I track or care about is protein. One gram per pound of bodyweight to preserve muscle tissue while losing fat. Fat is covered due to all the animal sources. Carbs fall where they may. I eat the foods I like, and don't force myself to eat food I don't like. I can eat like that forever.

Three workouts a week and a couple walks while having 2500 calories a day with around 160 grams of protein and I'll stay around 12% body fat. I'm 41, excellent health markers so far.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
Thanks ,
I wish I would have made a YouTube video of my doctor when he saw the weigh in stats.

I've never seen a giddy 77 y.o. doctor before

I just had my annual physical and the NP wrote a vey nice note in my file congratulating me on my now 77 pound weight loss.

I’ve done it via a diet of my own design.

Big congratulations Sig2340.

Outstanding job.

One day at a time,
The program works. . .
If
You work the program.

I'm using NutriSystems, and SLOWLY losing weight. I'm down about 25 pounds since August 1. It's a difficult balance, due to diabetes. We're slowly normalizing our diets, like eating out reasonably. A turkey burger isn't bad, and sometimes I'll get the cheeseburger as well. I'm working out daily, at least walking briskly for 1/2 hour and weights 3 times a week. I do miss chips, though.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
The week of my birthday I ate way too much homemade lasagna on my birthday and had a beer with it. Desert was two big homemade chocolate/mocha cupcakes. The next morning I had one of those Costco pastries with coffee and another large serving of lasagna for lunch. The following weekend I ate a Nanaimo bar with coffee, after dinner, one night and the next night finished-off about 1/3 of a Toblerone bar with coffee.

I gained zero pounds that week.

How did I do that? The rest of the week I 16:8 interval fasted each day, kept lunch and dinner portions sane, and snacked very, very little. What snacking there was was limited to a handful of nuts.

Bingo. While that amount of sweets is well above normal to me personally, with my "cheat meals" usually being stuff like pizza, pasta, and potatoes, it does demonstrate the same concept I talked about that you can eat a reasonable amount of "unhealthy" stuff like pizza/pasta/chips/ice cream/burgers/pastries/etc. a few times per week and still be doing fine with your weight loss journey.

I find that sort of moderation lifestyle much easier to stick with than the idea of staring longingly at the lasagna and cupcakes that you are completely denied and relegating yourself to choking down brussel sprouts and cottage cheese 3 meals per day while bitching the whole time about how much you hate your restrictive diet and dreaming about having some pasta or something sweet.

To me, that's not a recipe for long term success, or happiness.

But I understand that, for medical or self-control reasons, such a moderation/"cheat meal" approach may not be an option for everyone, and total abstinence from certain food categories may be the only possible route.

I miss my root beer too.

I
Go crazy once a month and have a can,
Not even diet